cycling & pedestrians

Twice in a week ive had dozy young women wearing headphones step into the road in front of me without looking. First time there was a collision although I’d managed to scrub almost all my speed off so just a light touch – enough to make her jump and scream like it was my fault though.
This morning I was halfway through a righthand turn, on wet tramrails, when the dozy moo stepped out from a pedestrian refuge still looking to her right at the two cars that had already gone through.
Braking, then sliding on wet steel rails with zero control really isn’t fun – proper brown trouser moment. How I managed to avoid hitting her I’ll never know!

Yep, get it all the time.

Doubly annoying when they see you, mentally calculate the absolute minimum width of road they think you need, and step in to what’s left of it anyway 😡

As I’m commuting at 07:30 I rarely get iped trouble but today was a doozy. Really looking forward to the dark mornings now..

at least pedestrians are soft I often struggle to get past them on a narrow shared us path as they cannot hear me I once got off and tapped one gently on the shoulder to get attention and they reacted like i had assaulted them

Some pedestrians are a damn nuisance. Weaving around on shared cycleways/footpaths either gazing into a phone or wearing headphones with no awareness of their surroundings. I enjoy buzzing them with a close overtake. Those who manage to walk without distractions usually manage to hear a bike approaching from behind. Regardless I give them a wide berth out of courtesy.

“Braking, then sliding on wet steel rails with zero control really isn’t fun”

So, you failed to anticipate potential hazards, then struggled to control your vehicle in adverse (yet obvious) weather conditions? 😉

Sadly my normal method of reducing the risk from gormless sheep (hollering at them from a distance to scatter them in a predictable way) is frowned upon in town.

I clobbered one who stepped of in front of me a few years back. It was my fault apparently, nothing to do with him not looking or listening.

I used to get taken out on a regular basis by pedestrians when I was a bike courier in London back in the day; most were quite apologetic though.

In recent weeks, I’ve had several close calls on the shared bike/pedestrian pavement on Northam Bridge, on Saturdays when The Saints are playing at St Marys Stadium.

I think some of the blue circle warnings on the pavement may have been covered over by maintenance in recent times, but there are still some there. They are not warning of cyclists possibly flying above peoples’ heads, or of cyclists possibly swimming above divers in the Itchen! 😉

just about *tap tap tap* to get *tap tap tap* hit by a *tap tap tap* cyclist *tap tap* oh shit *tap tap tap*

I enjoy buzzing them with a close overtake.

I do hope you’re being facetious, otherwise you’re just being an ar5e

I walk to work and nearly get taken out pedestrians on a daily basis!
Dozey/sleepy people are idiots. Worst ones are the meanderers looking at their phones in the middle of the path

EDIT:

just about *tap tap tap* to get *tap tap tap* hit by a *tap tap tap* cyclist *tap tap* oh shit *tap tap tap*

^THAT! 😆

Don’t get me started on the guy who opened the offside door of his car to let his dog out into the road (no lead), who then took an excitable interest in me, approaching at ~15mph, whilst he rummaged around in the car. He was dismissive when I said to him “Your dog appears to be in the road.” Poor dog.

Worst ones are the meanderers looking at their phones in the middle of the path paying no attention to their off the leash dog running amok

FTFY

regular event in Leeds, this weeks induced a full on scream from the student who stepped in front of me while starring intently at the funny picture of a man lit up on red on the signal opposite.

Freshers week should start with a seminar on the green cross code.

I had close call the other night, I was filtering up the inside of a load of cars waiting at traffic lights. It was twilight and there was nobody around so I hopped up onto the pavement (shoot me). A passenger opened his door and got out of a car just as I passed, if I had remained on the road I would have gone right into him/it.

Tri bars with no bar plugs. Once they’ve been impaled by a bicycle once they should be less dopey in future.

As a cyclist, I’m sure you’re not enamoured of the ‘punishment pass’ oldtalent, and

I enjoy buzzing them with a close overtake.

is pretty much exactly the same sort of bullying.

I enjoy buzzing them with a close overtake

Idiot. Would you do that to a cyclist if you were driving?

Just by Southwark bridge, where the shiny new path goes, peds don’t seem to realise it’s two-way.

A shout of “Look Out” or just “NOOOO” tends top stop them in their tracks.

“NOOOO” tends top stop them in their tracks

May as well have this on a speaker system on a perma loop when using shared use paths. Hence why we also have threads about why cyclists choose to cycle on the road not the paths.

Regular occurrence coming back through Manchester, my particular favourites are the ones who just walk out into the road without looking (usually on their phone) because obviously if you can’t hear anything coming it must be fine. God help them when electric cars properly take off 😀

It’s quite fun seeing them jump when you ding your bell at them or shout “look out” very loudly in a strong Glaswegian accent

Ride further out from the gutter – you have plenty of time to react then. Cover the brakes at all times. Watch the pavements for people about to step out. I have never hit a pedestrian and believe me in Edinburgh in the summer you have plenty of opportunity. ride defensively, ride safe.

I used to ride home through Leeds centre and just used to ride along shouting “Look up, LOOK UP!”

Freshers week should start with a seminar on the green cross code.

Tell me about it! I ride through a University to get to work these days. Avoiding the hipsters barreling over the road on their skateboards or the students blindly staring at the iPhone is worrying.

Don’t know who had the least sense the last time, the girl completely oblivious to anything apart from her Facebook status, or her pal who watched me ride up to them and never said anything to her friend.

It’s quite fun seeing them jump when you ding your bell at them or shout “OOT THE ROAD, YA TADGER” very loudly in a strong Glaswegian accent

FTFY 😉

The girl I actually hit last week stepped out into the middle of a one way bus/cycle route – no cars allowed. I was bang in the middle of the lane and had just slowed to allow some folk on the actual ped crossing time to cross. She was ten ft further on and walked out diagonally just as I’d stood up to accelerate again (singlespeed) so I was trying to avoid her but ran out of road space to do so.
God help her if idea been driving a bus!

It’s quite fun seeing them jump when you ding your bell at them or shout “OOT THE ROAD, YA TADGER” very loudly in a strong Glaswegian accent
FTFY

Generally only shout when I don’t have time to reach for the bell so I usually just scream the first thing that pops into my head – can be quite interesting what you come up with!

Ride further out from the gutter – you have plenty of time to react then. Cover the brakes at all times. Watch the pavements for people about to step out. I have never hit a pedestrian and believe me in Edinburgh in the summer you have plenty of opportunity. ride defensively, ride safe.

Was doing exactly that recently when a small child (~3 or 4) bolted across the street from behind a group of people leaving me about 2 metres to see him and react in. Almost stopped in time but still tapped him hard enough to knock him over. Thankfully he was fine, but if it’d been a car he’d have been in big trouble.

if I had a pound for every time a pedestrian had stepped out in front of me, I’d have about £263 I reckon.

I’ve only ever hit 2 – once a minor touch, the other I knocked the fool and his coffee/mobile over.
The third notable event I managed to avoid him but went flying over the handlebars and hurt my shoulder.

I can just about forgive the ones who do it by mistake, the ones I can’t are those who see you but start to cross anyway.

I do hope you’re being facetious, otherwise you’re just being an ar5e

Ive never claimed to be anything but an arse.

Idiot. Would you do that to a cyclist if you were driving?

Yep. I generally dislike cyclists clogging up the roads.

As a cyclist, I’m sure you’re not enamoured of the ‘punishment pass’ oldtalent

I dont consider myself a cyclist. I ride mountain bikes & commute and keep off the roads.

Yeah. It was fairly clear you don’t ride a bike much, if at all.

Sometimes I take the evasive action so I have clear road, but then wait until I am at closest approach before shouting ‘HEADS UP!’ a bit louder than I need to. The shock might help them remember next time, when it could be worse.

not just cyclists vs peds.

i’d estimate about 1 per day in my own street just walking straight out across the end of the junction of a one way street right in front of me in a 1.4 tonne tin box. about half presumably catching those pesky pokemons or selecting new tunes to play. the other half with young kids, typically with a pushchair. right in front of me as I pull up to the give way line. that’s one way to educate pre-school kids about road safety I spose.

the single biggest evasive action I took whilst on a bike was the lollipop lady! you’d think that they’d use their eyeballs.

walking straight out across the end of the junction

I think this might be confusion/ ambiguity in the highway code. Pedestrians sometimes believe they have right of way at junctions, but I think they have right of way only if they’re crossing the road already when a car approaches.

I once yelled “Oi!” at the builder who strolled out in front of me without looking. He jumped so high his McCoffee went all over him and the road.

Suspect his mates pissing themselves at his reaction will have had more effect on his vigilance than my shout!

oldtalent=AWESOME (* and **)

* troll
** if you value persistence even in the absence of sublety or humour

At least he’s consistent

Just as the ‘cycling vs drivers’ debate is a mistake – it’s ‘sensible people vs idiots’ – pedestrians can be misrepresented by an idiotic portion of their members, who are more than capable of cockwomblery whether crossing the road, walking along a pavement with other members of the public, navigating the aisles of a supermarket, or negotiating any narrow entranceway.

As I’ve said before, let’s not categorise people by their mode of transport, but by their sense of propriety and consideration for others.